The Year of the Pivot: 2024, A Writing Year in Review
It’s the final day of 2024, which means it’s time for my annual Writing Year in Review post—highlights, lowlights, charts, and insights into my writing process. And at the end of the post, there’s an announcement about a new book I have coming out next year!!!
First, let’s look at how many hours I spent writing in 2024:
(Note: I use Toggl to track my time—if you’d like to learn more, I wrote a post about how and why I use a time tracker for writing.)
As you can see, July was a rather low month at 22 hours—however, I did spend three weeks in Europe (I went to Paris for the first time, and I visited my parents in Vienna). The highest month was September, where I felt the back-to-school energy (despite not currently being a student/teacher). And the total for the year was:
711 hours writing
That’s fewer yearly hours than in recent years, but it’s been a tricky full year on many fronts, and it’s still a respectable showing.
And now, you ask, how did I spend my time?
Here’s a chart of how many hours I spent on each writing project over the course of the year:
A few insights into this chart:
Development – this is an umbrella I use to include critiquing other people’s writing, attending my writing group, participating in writing conferences, learning about writing craft, and networking.
Volunteer work – I’m on the board of directors for a writing nonprofit. It’s nice to do a little to give back to the writing community, and this year I guest edited the Holiday Lit Blitz.
Short stories – short stories are great to stretch my writing muscles, and some stories just belong in a short form. I also cheated this year and included a personal essay in this category, which leads to one of this year’s highlights:
A personal essay I wrote was nominated for a Pushcart Prize!
Teaching writing – I taught a two-week writing class for the Lifelong Learning program at Kellogg Community College, and it was delightful. I’ll be teaching a class in March about writing adaptations and retellings, so if you live in West Michigan, watch for when their Spring catalogue drops.
Regency mystery novel – I’ve played a little with a new novel, that will likely be one of my major focuses for 2025.
One thing that didn’t end up on this chart…I gave up my writing office. Due to a variety of circumstances, one of my kids needed it as a bedroom. As I moved out of the space and into the edge of a different room, I definitely felt the loss. It’s hard not to read into the symbolism of giving up your creative space.
However, I learned something new last week: when Frank Lloyd Wright lived in Oak Park, he gave up his architecture studio so his kids could have a bedroom. A few years later he ended up designing and building an incredible new studio. So I’m sure good writing spaces will again be in my future.
Me outside of the Frank Lloyd Wright house
A small part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s new studio in Oak Park
An architecture cabinet that’s also a partial column. Also, it can move.
And now, we come to the title of this blog post…
The Year of the Pivot
In the middle of 2024, I had a bit of a writing crisis. My family would argue that calling it “a bit of a crisis” is a gross understatement. My husband bought me a pot of succulents for my desk, which is a true indication of the gravity of the situation.
During the first half of the year, I spent 165 hours revising an 1870s mystery novel, bringing the three-year total for the book to 800 hours.
It’s doing a lot of cool things, but it’s a really tricky, complicated book. Due to a variety of factors, I realized that I needed to step away from the project. (As a note: I will be coming back to this book, but it may be a year or two before I figure out how to make it work. Fortunately, books are like soup—time stewing is almost always beneficial for enhancing the flavors and depth. I spent years thinking about The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet before writing it, and it really helped me figure out Mary’s character.)
Fortunately, about two weeks before I stepped away from the book, I had already decided on an Exciting New Book that I wanted to write/finish.
Pivoting was difficult, but it was also exhilarating. The new project—which for the moment, we’re still calling the Exciting New Book—brought me so much joy.
I ended up spending 213 hours on the Exciting New Book. And the book will actually be coming out in 2025.
It was a year of ups and downs, with lots of twists and turns, but it’s ending on a high note. Thanks for joining me on my writing journey, and Happy New Year!
And if you’d like a little more details, my new book is titled Write with Jane Austen: Masterclasses from the Master Storyteller.
And you can read more about this new book in this post:
